Did Wife Of White House Leaker Ezra Cohen-Watnick Work To Burnish Russia’s Image?

By Nathan Guttman April 5, 2017

A pair of American genealogists believe they’ve found information linking the wife of White House staffer Ezra Cohen-Watnick with pro-Russian advocacy in the U.S.

After learning of Cohen-Watnick’s alleged involvement in providing Republican Devin Nunes with information showing members of the Trump transition team had shown up in secret intelligence reports, genealogists Renee Stern Steinig and Randol Schoenberg, decided to look through some family trees to learn more about Cohen-Watnick.

They stumbled upon an oral testimony of Vicki Fraser, mother of Cohen-Watnick’s wife Rebecca Miller. In it, the proud mother states that Rebecca “works for Ketchum, a PR and marketing firm in Washington, D.C.” and adds that her “biggest challenge” at work is “to try to make Russia look better which is particularly difficult when they’re invading other countries and when Putin is somewhat out of control.”

The testimony was given in 2014. The Forward could not independently verify the information relating to Rebecca Miller.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected]

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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